Laika’s Stop-Motion Masterpiece Is Officially a Streaming Hit Ahead of ‘Wildwood’

This weekend, the most anticipated date in the animated film fans’ calendar is finally here, as Wildwood hits theaters. The geniuses at Laika are back with more stop-motion magic, seven years after releasing their most recent film, Missing Link, which featured the voices of Hugh Jackman, Emma Thompson, and Stephen Fry​​​​​​. Wildwood has been 15 years in the making, with Laika first acquiring the rights to the source material when helping produce its trailer in 2011.

The Colin Meloy-written and Carson Ellis-illustrated children’s fantasy novel the film is based upon was a big hit upon release, both critically and commercially. Not only did the novel debut at No. 7 on The New York Times Best Seller list, but it successfully spawned a trilogy of stories. This weekend, the awe and wonder so carefully crafted by Meloy and Ellis are being turned into the animation event of the year by Laika, with a hugely talented team of animators working tirelessly in the age of cutting corners to bring the tiniest of details to life.

In anticipation of Wildwood‘s arrival, and in perfect timing for spooky season, Laika’s stop-motion horror Coraline is a streaming hit again. At the time of writing, the button-eyed masterpiece is one of the most-watched movies on Hulu in the U.S. Based on a story by Neil Gaiman and directed by Henry Selick, the film stars Dakota Fanning as the titular Coraline, a young girl who discovers an alternate reality through a secret door in her new home, only for darkness to be unleashed and her life to change.

Four franchises, four completely different ways of getting underneath
your skin. This is the one built out of your particular fear, why it works so well on you, and what
it would leave behind.

Your nightmare does not wait outside the door. It waits for you
to close your eyes, which you are going to have to do eventually, because nobody has ever
won that particular argument.

• Freddy is horror’s cruellest idea: a threat that lives in the one place you cannot
  guard, cannot lock, and cannot avoid forever.
• You are the one who is fine during the film and wide awake at two in the morning. Your
  own head is where this does its damage.
• These films understood exhaustion as a horror engine. The kids on Elm Street do not lose
  because they are weak. They lose because they are tired.
• You can lock every door in the house. You still have to sleep.

Your nightmare is not really the doll. It is the face of the
person you tell, and the way they decide, very kindly, that you have imagined all of it.

• Chucky works precisely because he is absurd. That is the trap: the more accurately you
  describe him, the less anybody is going to believe you.
• You are the one shouting at the screen because the characters are not listening. You
  know that feeling from real life too.
• The franchise is at its best when the adults in the room are the real obstacle, and you
  have met those adults.
• By the time somebody finally believes you, you will have handled most of it on your own.

Your nightmare has your number, knows your name, and has almost
certainly been inside your house before. The worst part is that you already know them.

• Scream is the only one of these where the killer takes the mask off and turns out to be
  somebody who was at the party.
• You are the person who calls the twist out loud before it lands. You watch people the
  same way you watch films.
• The franchise made the rules of horror part of the plot, which means the survivors are
  the ones paying attention. You would be paying attention.
• Everybody is a suspect, including the person who just offered to walk you home.

Your nightmare is not really about you. It is about the people
asleep down the hall, and the feeling that whatever is here is not interested in leaving.

• The Conjuring films are domestic horror. The house, the family, the perfectly ordinary
  room that quietly stops feeling ordinary.
• Your instinct is to get everybody into one room. Your fear is protective rather than
  personal, which is rarer than it sounds.
• This is the one franchise where belief is the weapon. The people who come through it are
  the ones who are not alone and refuse to be.
• Whatever is here did not come for you. It came for the household, and you are the one
  standing in the hallway.

‘Wildwood’ Is Already Receiving Perfect Reviews

• Image via Laika

• Image via Laika

• Image via LAIKA Studios

• Image via Laika

• Image via LAIKA

Image via Laika

Image via Laika

Image via LAIKA Studios

Image via Laika

Image via LAIKA

• Image via Laika

• Image via Laika

• Image via LAIKA Studios

• Image via Laika

• Image via LAIKA

Image via Laika

Image via Laika

Image via LAIKA Studios

Image via Laika

Image via LAIKA

Wildwood is already being called a “masterpiece” by critics. Aidan Kelley, writing for Collider, awarded Wildwood a 9/10 score, saying, “Laika has made many visually striking movies in their nearly two-decade career, but Wildwood soars above them all with some of the most breathtaking sequences of the year.” The film’s cast is led by Peyton Elizabeth Lee, with the likes of Jacob Tremblay, Carey Mulligan, Angela Bassett, Richard E. Grant, Amandla Stenberg, Awkwafina, and two-time Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali also lending their voices to this month’s must-watch animated adventure.

Coraline is one of the most-streamed movies on Hulu. Stay tuned to Collider for more streaming stories.

Coraline

• <

  Dakota Fanning

  Coraline Jones (voice)

• <

  Teri Hatcher

  Mel Jones / Other Mother (voice)